Vermont police step up patrols for Memorial Day holiday

BENNINGTON &GT;&GT; Police will be setting up checkpoints and increasing traffic patrols to coincide with Memorial Day weekend.

The Bennington Police Department announced Thursday at that starting the week of May 30 it would be conducting a "safety checkpoint" somewhere in town.

"An aggressive effort will be made to identify impaired drivers and safety violations on our highways," police said in a release. "Officers will be enforcing seat belt, child restraint and other motor vehicle laws during this checkpoint."

Other police agencies will be conducting their own traffic safety operations as well. According to the Windham County Sheriff's Office, "high visibility patrols" and checkpoints will be part of its efforts this Memorial Day.

State Police will be working Operation CARE (Combined Accident Reduction Effort), which is a national effort to lower the number of crashes through more police presence on highways and educating drivers.

State Police say they will be focusing their patrols in areas where there were fatal crashes last year where occupants were not wearing seat belts. Police said between May 22, 2015, and and May 25 of of that year, there were 33 crashes total, three traffic fatalities, five crashes involving driver impairment, 12 arrests for driving under the influence, and 398 tickets written for speeding.

"Troopers will use organized saturation patrols as well as checkpoints throughout the state in an effort to reduce crashes," VSP Traffic Operations Commander Lieutenant John Flannigan said in a release. "Operation C.A.R.E is effective in educating the public and reducing the number of serious crashes."

The VSP will work with local police on the "Click It or Ticket" campaign through June 5. Click It or Ticket is an effort to increase seat belt use. Police said the rate of seat belt use in Vermont over the past 12 years has been 85 percent.

As of May 23, there have been 23 motor vehicle deaths in 2016. Nearly half of those involved people not wearing a seat belt or proper restraint.

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